BEETLE PEST ON THE GAPIS ESTATE. 63 



timber of Cliir {Finns longifolia) iu the North - Western 

 Provinces ; in this case the injury is no clonbt done by the 

 larvae." Furthei', iu Vol. III., p. 127, " it has been reported 

 as attacking various plants in different parts of India." This is 

 the whole of the information I was able to find respecting it and 

 its habits. 



I visited the estate at Gapis on February 11th, 1897, 

 and stayed a few days at Lady Weld's rest-house. Misled by 

 the above quoted notes I spent the first and part of the 

 second day iu searching in the dead wood lying about amongst 

 the coffee for the larva of the beetle. Then finding that the 

 trees which were most attacked were situated in land which was 

 nearly free from timber, digging operations were begun, and 

 it was soon found that there were many small whitish grubs 

 a short distance below the sui-face of the ground. These grubs 

 were all of one species, and were undoubtedly the larva of a 

 weevil. They were very pale yellowish white, footless grubs, 

 when adult nearly three quarters of an inch in length, active, and 

 with considerable powers of locomotion. They were in all stages 

 of growth from a quarter of an inch upwards. Several crysalids 

 were next found, and an examination of these left little doubt 

 as to the grubs being in reality the young of the coffee beetle. 

 This was subsequently proved beyond question by l^reeding 

 experiments. 



The portion of the estate most infested was that lying near 

 the village of Padang Rengas, but most of the coffee on the 

 lower parts of the estate shewed the presence of the insect. 

 The trees near the big jungle seem the least affected of any, 

 and there is certainly no sign of the pieces of scrub land which 

 ai'e enclosed in or aljut on the fields having an injurious effect 

 on the adjacent coff'ee. It is that growing on the cleanest 

 and longest cleared parts of the estate which is most attacked. 



The effect on the trees is very great, some of them are so 

 stunted by the continual defoliation that they are not an eighth 

 of the size of others of the same age which have escaped the 

 ravages of the beetles. The leaves are reduced to mere skele- 

 tons. 



As already mentioned the results of digging shewed that 

 the griibs were most frequent in the cleanest laud. I dug in 

 grass and weeds iu many parts of the estate but could not find 

 one. The same result followed digging in scrub and "lalaug" 

 land, and also under the hedges. The pepper garden and the 

 land near it appeared to be free as well, though the leaves 

 of the "dadap" on which the pepper vines grow were badly 



